Henry h



(No Model.)

H. H. EAMES.

APPARATUS POB. CHLORIDIZING GRES.

110.891.360. Patented Oct. 16, 1888.

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UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

HENRY II. EAMES, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN J. KELLY, OF SAME PLACE.

APPARATUS FOR CHLORIDIZING ORES.

SPECIFICATION forming part o Letters Patent No.391,360, dated October 16. 1888.

Application filed December 17, 1887. Serial No. 258.155.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY H. EAMES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Baltimore, in the State of Maryland, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Chloridizing Ores; and I do declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters and gures of reference marked thereon,which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to improvements in the mechanism employed for obtaining from ores the gold, silver, and other precious metals contained therein, my object being to save the labor and expense incident to the roasting process and to obtain from the ores a higher percentage of the precious metals, which object I accomplish by the process of electrolysis and mechanism connected therewith in the following manner, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side elevation in full of the chloridizer. Fig. 2 is avertical section through the device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a verti cal section through the device, wherein a modification is shown in which a steam-coil is employed. Fig. 4 is a View looking down on the device, a part of the cover removed.

The same iigures refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views.

Mounted on the insulating-timbers 4 is the cylindrical vessel 5, which is constructed of boiler-plate, the ends thereof being provided with the flanges 8 of angle-iron, by which is secured thereto the bottom G and top 7 ,which are constructed of east-iron and of the ribbed form shown, in order to possess sufficient strength to resist the internal pressure to which they are subjected. The top 7 is provided with the opening 9 therein for access to the interior of the vessel and for charging it with the material, a plate, 11, closing this opening by means of a gasket and the dog 12, in the usual manner, for making steam-tight such openings.

In order to protect the metal forming the (No model.)

vessel from corrosion and the galvanic action of the solution 21 therein, the entire interior of the vessel is lined with some suitable hydraulic cement, which likewise serves to so insulate the interior of the said vessel that only those currents of electricity will be established as are required to perform the necessary Work.

Placed within the vessel 5 in the positions represented in Figs. 2 and 4. and supported upon the insulating-blocks 14, are the plates and 16, one of which may be copper and the other zinc, or any different materials may be employed which are respectively electropositive and electronegative one to the other, and which will constitute a galvanie couple, and are so placed in the vessel that there will be no metallic connection between the said two plates, the insulating-blocks 14 serving this purpose; or the said plates may be snspended from the top by some suitable device and the perfect insulation maintained.

In order that the solution 21, with which the vessel is charged, may be heated and the rev quired pressure maintained therein, steam is admitted to the interior through the pipe 19 from a steam-generator, which, to preserve the necessary insulation, has its continuity broken by a section of the said pipe being made of steam rubber tubing 20. Entering the vessel 5 through the top 7 is the shaft 24, the stuffing-box 18 serving to make this joint steam-tight, an additional support to the shaft being provided by the bearing 25, which is constructed of lignunrvitze, or some like non-conducting material. Secured to the shaft 24 by the spiders 33, are the paddles 2G, which in the rotating movement of the shaft serve to produce the desired currents` in the lsolution. In order to insure a more perfect movement of these currents and to bring continually in contact with the surfaces of the plates 1.5 and 16 new particles, the said paddles have placed around them the cas ing 22 with its openings distributed, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4, wherein, in consequence of the rotating movement of the paddles, the currents will enter the casing 22 through the lower opening, 27, and be discharged through theupperopening,28,thus causingacontinuous 2 v senseo agitation of the solution and preventing any precipitation of the heavy particles, and continuously presenting to the surfaces of the plates 15 and 16 new particles, preventing the polarization of the plates and possessing other advantages, which will be shown in describing the manner of operating.

In lieu of the paddles 26, a modification is represented in Fig. 3, wherein a heating-coil, 29, is substituted therefor, whereby the necessary currents may be established by the difference of temperature between the outside and interior of the casing 22, though this arrangement would not be under the same control as that in which the paddles are used. Ihe use of the coil 29, however, possesses the advantage of not reducing the saturation of the solution, asl the heat therefrom is imparted from the surface of the coil, and the condensed steam may be returned to the generator, instead of being discharged in the vessel 5, which 'necessarily weakens the solution therein.

The manner of operating is a follows: The cover 11 being removed, the vessel 5 is charged with a solution of chloride of sodium,chloride of lime, or any "suitable chloride, which is brought to the desired degree of acidity by the addition thereto of sulphuric acid, sulphate of copper, or sulphate of iron. now thrown in gear and the shaft 24 caused to rotate, and the solution in the tank agitated by the movement of the paddles 26. Into the solution is at this point introduced the ore which is to be treated, and which has been previously passed through apulverizer and reduced to an impalpable powder, only sufficient of. this ore-dust being placed therein to preserve such"'consistcncy of the solution as to permit a perfect circulation to be kept up around the plates 15 and 16. The cover 11 is nowvplaced in position and the opening 9 made steam-tight by the dog 12, and lsteam is admitted to the interior of the vessel 5 through the pipe 19 by means of the valve 32, when the solution in the vessel will be raised to the required temperature and a corresponding pressure result therefrom, which in `practice is found to be best at about two hundred and fty degrees of temperature, and the resultant pressure of about twenty-five pounds per square inch, under which condition the best chloridization is obtained and a greater galvanic action established.

It will now be seen that in the device I have thus far described there is combined inthe onevessel both a galvanic cell and a chloridizer, in which, as a galvanic cell,the electrical circuit is completed between the plates 15 and 16by the metallic character of the solution therein, these metallic particles of the ore being kept in suspension in the solution by the agitating device described, and are sufficiently dense in the said solution to form a continuous metallic communication between the said plates 15 and 16, and thus within itself establish the required electrolyzing process, whereby the chlorine of the chloride of The pulley 50 is l rents which have been caused in the solution y by the paddles 26 causing new particles to be brought continuously in contact or in the vicinity of the plates 15 and 16, in the immediate vicinity of which there is the greatest electrolyzing action and consequent chloridization.

When the solution has been exposed sufficiently long to the galvanic action in the vessel and become throughly chloridized, the steam is shut off and the cover 11 removed, when the solution is drawn off through the valve 30, and in the usual manner subjected'to the amalgamating process and the precious metals obtained therefrom.

I do not herein broadly claim the process of chloridizing ore by electrolysis, as Letters Patent of the United States for a device of that description were granted me December 22, 1885, No. 332,705, in which two`copper plates are the electrodes of a dynamo-electric machine,which are placed in the chloridizer, and in this manner produces the chloridization. It will be seen in the device herein described that the chloridizer and the galvanic cell are one, and that the desired electrolysis is produced within itself, whereby the electrolyzing properties of the cell are utilized in the chloridizer, and a much higher percentage of the precious metals obtained than in the old process and at considerably reduced expense.

Having described my invention and the manner of operating, what I claim, and desire to secure by United States Letters Patent, is-

1. In a device for chloridizing metallic ores, the combination of a hermetically-sealed tank, the metallic plates 15 and 16, placed inside the said tank and mounted upon insulated supports, whereby they will be insulated from each other and from the tank, the said plates forming the two elements of a galvanic battery, a stirrer placed in the said tank and be IOO IIC

tween the said plates 15 and 16, a solution conmaintained in said tank, for the purpose set forth.

2. In a device for chloridizing metallic ores,l

thereof, a solution containing the ore to be In testimony whereof Iai'iix my signaturein treated, by which a gaivanic current will -be presence of two witnesses. excited between the said plates 15 and 16, and T asteam-pipe for discharging steam in the tank, HEB RY H' EAMES' 5 whereby the solution therein will be heated Vtnesses:

and a pressure maintained in the tank7 for the VM. L. BAILIE, purpose set forth. Y J No. T. MADDOX. 

